http://www.economist.com/news/business/21709345-huge-merger-tries-follow-change-way-people-watch-television-angling
IMAGINE a television which, as in the old days, has only a handful of channels to choose from instead of hundreds, as a typical cable set-up might offer today. In a decade or so TVs will once again have only a few channels, but each will run miles deep, with content that can be viewed on demand. Netflix might be one such offering; Amazon another. Both firms are spending billions of dollars making and buying TV shows and films to sell directly to viewers to watch when they like, and on devices other than the box in the corner of the room. And other rich tech firms may join them.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/10/daily-chart-15
But gun-toting may bring actors more than just moral satisfaction. The number of different guns an actor has handled in films is strongly correlated with Ulmer scores, which measure an actor’s bankability—or ability to draw financing—on a scale from 0 to 300. This trend holds even when controlling for the total number of acting credits. Denzel Washington seems to hold a different gun in each movie in which he stars.
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21709062-earlier-sunny-mood-about-technology-and-innovation-has-given-way-pessimism-techno-wars
The real question is not whether the IT revolution has run out of steam or whether creative destruction is grinding to a halt. In fact, the IT revolution is probably gathering pace and Google and Amazon are two of the most innovative firms to emerge in the past 50 years. Rather it is whether the new economy can counteract the forces ranged against it: ageing populations; a political class responding to populism by restricting trade and by over-regulating business; and education systems that in many places are failing. The big danger is that, while optimists and pessimists battle it out, the world becomes ever more divided between islands of high productivity surrounded by a vast ocean of stagnation.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2016/10/bang-your-buck
Given that a number of prominent actors—Matt Damon, Sigourney Weaver, George Clooney, Jodie Foster and Sylvester Stallone, to name a handful—are in favour of gun control, a public repudiation of firearms would have a significant effect on the industry. It would help, too, if free advertising was eradicated by film companies by demanding expensive product placement contracts from manufacturers. Actions films and the requisite guns would of course still have a place on the silver screen—but it might limit the collateral damage.
http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21709150-combination-huge-distributor-tv-leading-content-producer-bold
Time Warner has been here before. In 2000 its $350bn merger with AOL was the largest in American history. It was meant to be the dawn of a new era dominated by internet giants. That deal was a disaster that cost thousands of jobs and destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars in combined market value for the two firms (AOL spun off in 2009 and was acquired by Verizon last year for $4.4bn). Now Time Warner becomes part of a megadeal in another business with an interesting but uncertain future.
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21708876-political-reform-essential-prerequisite-flourishing-economy-milk-without
Innopolis has comfortable town houses, playgrounds with Wi-Fi and a large swimming pool. Igor Nosov, its manager, holds an American MBA. The city’s free economic zone is dominated by a circular office building for high-tech firms. There is just one thing in short supply: the firms themselves. So far the building has only about a dozen occupants. “Well, we’ve built a collective farm. Now we need the farmers,” quips one of the Tatar officials. Whether those farmers will come depends on a range of factors mostly outside Tatarstan’s control.
